GRAPEVINES are liking the recent dry weather; most varieties have completed the flowering process and are at the setting stage.
Obviously if we have a poor fruit set, we have fewer berries and overall, less fruit, but it still all looks promising.
Disease pressure has been moderate, but I’ve been spraying every 10 days or so to give a better chance of keeping the mildews away.
Local wines have been doing well in the wine shows recently, and Swan Hill is also taking centre stage currently with the NSW Open Golf on at Murray Downs.
I was lucky enough to get a gig in the Pro Am on Wednesday thanks to Holts.
In February, the town will be full of tennis players with Swan Hill hosting Country Week closely followed by another Pro Series Tennis event, which was amazing to watch last year.
Growers are more than annoyed at the sad position in which the industry still finds itself, with wineries requiring only small quantities of red varieties – and with awful prices being offered.
Some wineries will be utilising some reds at a lower-than-normal sugar level and pressing them straight away to ensure minimal red colour is extracted and making a white wine from them.
I called one of my Mildura winery contacts recently and he answered from Mumbai (India) as he was there investigating possible wine opportunities.
Most wineries are exploring new markets to create more sales, which is an encouraging sign.
Most of the creatures in the vineyard are enjoying the dry, warmer weather, except the snails where they are suffering some chaffing in their nether regions.
This year’s batch of Orb Spiders is growing quickly, and currently only have little webs, on which they are all busy learning all the good knots and web designs for the days when they are responsible for their own food gathering.
I’ve also come across many more snakes since last month, with varying levels of success in the relocating processes.
It’s frustrating when you have carefully relocated them to various snake friendly areas away from the vineyard, and you find that you only have relocated two front halves in one spot, instead of a front half and a back half of the one snake.
